Do you pay your kids an allowance or a commission? Do you know the difference? Do your kids know the difference? This is a brief rundown of how I understand these words. Allowance to me means; money given for just being around. Commission, on the other hand, is money paid for doing work. How do you want your kids to understand the money they are given each week? Do you want them to take pride in their chores and do the work and get paid or do you just want to dole out your money to the couch potatoes that occasionally grunt hello when you come into the room? I opt for the first one, I wanted my kids to have responsibility and chores in our house. There are some things that they are required to do just because they are a part of our family and there are other things they get paid for. Each chore has a dollar amount attached to it and if it is not done they do not get that money. My hope is, this is teaching them to have a good work ethic. My boys are 15 and 12 and this is what they are paid to do: bring laundry down to be washed, put clean laundry away, take out the trash and recycle, stomp soda cans, and keep their rooms semi-neat. These are the things they do just because they are a part of this family: yard work with dad, get the mail, help with the dishes, unload groceries and anything else their dad and I can come up with that needs to be done.
I follow the Dave Ramsey plan with the boys too. They have a give, save and spend envelope that they divide their money into each week. I hope this is teaching them to spend responsibly and save and give to others in need.
I never had an allowance growing up, I had friends that did and maybe if I had I would have been better with money as a young adult. My mom and dad gave me money when I needed it for clothes, movies or going out to eat but it was never attached to a specific chore. I had things that I had to do around the house and at the barn. I did not have money that I would call my own until I started working when I was a junior in high school. I did not have a bank account until I started that job either. My kids had savings accounts as soon as they were born. I am sure I have mentioned this before but I will tell it again. I had a big empty plastic water cooler bottle that we would put spare change in when Sprat was little. I kept this in his room, when grandparents came to visit they had to pay to see the baby. Ha ha ha ha ha!!! just kidding. Anytime they got money as a gift it went in the bottle and that in turn went to their savings accounts. I only recently told the boys that they even had bank accounts. The later they find out the better. I ended up having to tell Sprat because he went to his daddy and told him I had stolen his money. He told his dad he had X amount of money and now he had a lot less and of course I was the only suspect in this crime. I did take his money to put in his bank account so it would not end up going to the grocery store for candy and junk. Thank goodness my hubby was able to explain to him what I had done and I told him we had a savings account for him at our bank.
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